Mike Whaley/Democrat photo
UNH kicker Mike MacArthur (13) boots a PAT during the Blue-White game on Tuesday in Durham.

Doctors were able to fix the pain in Mike MacArthur's left hip with offseason surgery. But only time can heal the heartache of a disheartening postseason loss nine months ago.

By most standards he had a solid year in 2011. He made 15 of 18 field-goal attempts and converted 40 of 43 extra-point attempts.

MacArthur also averaged 38.3 yards per punt. The numbers were good enough to earn second-team all-league honors in the Colonial Athletic Association.

But the kick he remembers the most is the blocked extra point with six seconds left in the fourth quarter of last December's FCS playoff game at Montana State, which preserved a 26-25 win for the Bobcats.

The play prevented the University of New Hampshire football team from tying the game and ended the Wildcats' season far from home.

"I was kind of shocked," MacArthur said. "We still had a shot at the onside kick, so I really tried to put it away and keep my head into it. On the flight back it really (hit me). Seeing all the seniors whose careers just ended, that was really tough."

UNH tried to rally from a 26-19 deficit when Kevin Decker hit Justin Mello with a 29-yard touchdown pass with six seconds remaining to pull the Wildcats within one.

The point after — one of the most automatic plays in football — seemed like a formality and the game looked like a sure bet to go into overtime. But the ball was tipped at the line of scrimmage and struck the right upright.

The Bobcats recovered the ensuing onside kick and the Wildcats' season was history.

"I think it may stay with me longer than the team," MacArthur said. "That was definitely the low point of my career so far. It sticks with you. It's a process of learning how to take a big failure like that and deal with it and move forward from it.

"It's been a good growing experience," he added.

The sooner the 2012 season starts, the easier it will likely be for MacArthur to put it behind him. UNH opens Thursday night at Holy Cross.

The North Hampton resident and former Winnacunnet High School kicker also had a potential game-winning field goal blocked in a loss at Maine two years ago, but that was relatively early in the year. UNH still had seven games remaining.

There was more finality to last year's boot.

"It's funny," MacArthur said. "They're both the same as any other kick. I went out fully expecting to make it. The guy got a finger on it and it hit the upright. All the way up until it hit the post it felt like any other kick. For the three seconds the play's going on, it's like everything else. It's the aftermath that kind of hits you."

It was an eerie finish and conjured up memories of UNH's last trip to Bozeman, Mont., for a playoff game in 1976 that also ended in a one-point loss, 17-16.

The difference? A missed extra point. Wildcat coach Sean McDonnell was involved in both games. He was a player on the '76 squad.

"Our operation wasn't too slow," MacArthur said, "but it was on the edge. That's something we've been working on going forward. We weren't too slow, but we were playing on the edge and that was one of those on-the-edge kicks."

He'd already booted a 36-yard field goal and two extra points in the game before MSU's Steven Bethley deflected the ball just enough to send it off course.

MacArthur, a junior, went 10 for 13 in field-goal tries in 2010 as a true freshman and was perfect on extra points (24 for 24). He was named third team all-CAA.

He's 25 of 31 on field-goal attempts for his career and 64 of 67 on extra points. He led the team in scoring as a freshman with 54 points and again in 2011 with 85.

His career long is 47 yards, which he's reached three times.

MacArthur, who prepped a year at Phillips Exeter Academy before going to UNH, spent much of last season dealing with a sore left hip on his plant leg that eventually required surgery to repair a torn labrum.

"I had my right hip done two years ago and I was hoping to get away with just my right hip," he said. "But as the season went on it got more and more painful, and I just decided I had to do something about it."

He hopes to use last December's experience as motivation.

"My goal is to hit every kick," MacArthur said, "and I feel like I'm capable of hitting every kick. After it stopped hurting after a couple of months you just look back on it and use it as a reason to work even harder."

Al Pike is a staff sports writer for Foster's Daily Democrat. He can be reached at 742-4455, ext. 5514, or at apike@fosters.com.